July 2016

July 26, 2016

Summer is somewhat of a “down time” for me and my work with the University of Denver. It is a time to reflect on how the previous year went, to relax and unwind, and to start planning for my ten weeks of travel in the fall. A lot of planning goes into deciding what high schools to visit, which college fairs to attend, and where to stay all while paying attention to my recruitment budget and at home responsibilities.

I’m often asked how I decide what high schools or college fairs I attend. The majority of the schools I visit have a long standing relationship with us. There are high schools I visit every year, year after year, because these schools continually send us many applications and often times a few students a year. There are some schools in my territory where we will receive as many as 30 applications a year. I also try to make it a point to visit all the schools from which our most current incoming class have attended. This is not always possible but if I am going to be in the general area of the school, I will try and schedule a visit. I’ll also take a look at the high schools from which we saw a significant number of applications for the fall of 2016 and try and visit those. I’ll take a look at how many students have inquired from schools in my territory. If I have a school where there are a large number of students that are interested in DU, I’ll make it a point to visit there as well. Finally, I have high school counselors and students call me and ask me to visit their schools. If I can fit it in my schedule and am in the general area, I will do so.

College fairs work much the same way. I’ll take a look at all of the college fair invitations I receive and decide which are best for us to attend. There are 4-5 fairs I do every year because I am guaranteed to see a good number of students with high interest in DU. I’ll add other fairs based on recent applications or enrolled students from that school or area.

I tend to start my fall recruitment travel the second week of September and end the first week of November. A typical week would have me leaving for a trip on Monday night and returning home Friday afternoon. I average 4-5 high school visits per day and 1-2 college fairs per week. Each high school visit will last anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour. College fairs can be anywhere from one hour to three hours and are typically evening events. In total, I will visit between 110-120 high schools, attend 10-15 college fairs and meet with over 1000 students at these events. I’ll also meet with students individually outside of these visits and college fairs.

In addition to scheduling college fairs and high school visits, I have to decide where to stay. I will spend over 40 nights in hotels during my fall travel. I’ve got to decide the best places to stay based on location while, again, keeping my travel budget in mind. I prefer to stay in one place for a week and drive a little more each day rather than switching hotels every night.

As you can see, there is quite a bit of work and planning that goes into fall travel. It takes a good deal of time to schedule fairs, visits, and accommodations. The planning for me is easier than it might be for others as I have been doing this for the University of Denver for 17 years already. Fall travel is something to which I look forward. However, in early November I’m ready to wrap it up and start reading the applications of all of the great students I had met in the previous 10 weeks.

July 19, 2016

Hey there all of you rising seniors, let’s do a check in! What has been occupying your summer? Have you been working? Are you at camp? Maybe you are abroad? Perhaps a class at the local community college? Or, might you be enjoying sleeping in and taking it easy? I bet some of you are even thinking about your college applications and that is a good thing, considering senior year will start up in about a month or so.

Your senior year will go by super quick. Do I have any advice for you? I certainly can offer my insight.

There are some things you can accomplish before school starts up to ease the application time crunch:

You more than likely have a few schools in mind that you are going to apply to, so make an application timeline. You do this by listing each school's application due date on a calendar (your phone calendar is great as long as you use it regularly).

The financial aid timeline is changing this year. You will be applying for financial aid this fall 2016 instead of the upcoming year (2017) as in the past. The financial aid deadline is another date you will want to add to each of your college's timeline. Awards should be available earlier and you want to make sure you know what forms are required of each school (FAFSA, CSS PROFILE, or the school's own form).

Work on your essay! If you have not started this part of your application, START NOW! The essay usually take the greatest amount of time. If you want to make those Early Action or Early Decision deadlines this fall, you will want to have time to tell your story. You can find essay questions online for on the Common Application. There are usually six topics to choose from and one will allow you a bit of freedom since you will write about the topic of your choice.

Ask one or two educators if they will write a recommendation letter for you. Do this as soon as school starts to allow them enough time to write the letter. Give them a deadline about a week prior to your application deadline. This provides you the opportunity to follow up before the last minute. Requesting one from both a counselor and a teacher is a good place to start, but do NOT overdo it by requesting a letter from every teacher you had junior year. This may be considered overkill.

If you are taking an ACT or SAT test this fall, plan accordingly. You want to apply with your best application, and if taking a second or third ACT or SAT means the college you apply to will not receive the new test scores by the application deadline, they may not be considered as part of your application. It is always a good thing to check with the school to see if the scores from your latest testing date will arrive in time for file review.

With proper planning and preparation you can ease some of the stressors that come along with your senior year... and even find time to enjoy it.

July 12, 2016

I graduated from DU in June of 2015 and took a job as a Fellow at the El Pomar Foundation. It was an amazing yearlong professional development experience that solidified my career aspirations in higher education. Luckily for me, a position as an Admission Counselor became available. Upon seeing the posting, I immediately reminisced on my time spent in Undergraduate Admission during my time as the College Access & Group Visit Fellow while I was a student. There was always such a deep passion and commitment to serve prevalent within all of the professional staff at DU; it was contagious and something that inspired you to make a difference every day you walked into work. Needless to say I couldn’t stay far from the University of Denver for too long.

I am so grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of what I see as a true “Dream Team”. I look forward to interacting with prospective students in my soon to be known territories, and to contribute to the valiant pursuit of inclusive excellence in my role on the Diversity Team. Most of all, it is the people that I am looking forward to working with. What makes DU great is the compassion and the dedication to excellence, not only for the University, but for the community as a whole.

Thank you DU, for all you provide for each of us. Here’s to some great years to come!